Starting a New Aquarium

     Starting a new aquarium can seem like a very difficult process, but overall it really is not that bad.  A lot of people, when budgeting for an aquarium, think that smaller is better.  The best advice I can give to you is to buy the biggest aquarium you can afford.  Commonly, people start out with a 10 gallon, which is a small tank.  In small tanks it is very hard to maintain good levels and maintenance.  When starting an aquarium you need to be able to check certain levels.
     Of all the scientific terms and levels to know about, PH, Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates are by far the most important things to know about.  I will be publish an article about everyone of these levels and scientific terms, but for now I will tell you what type of test kit you need to test for them and a general summarization of them.  PH is the acidity level and base level of your water.  PH is on a scale ranging from 0 – 14.0.  Here is a picture explaining PH: PH Scale Picture .  PH needs to stay around 7.0, unless specified differently according to you species of fish.  Ammonia, Nitrites, and Nitrates are part of the Nitrogen Cycle.  The Nitrogen Cycle is a natural cycle your aquarium goes through to establish bacteria in your tank.
     One of the best test kits I have ever used to test your levels is the Tetra line of test kits, they are very accurate.  I recommend buying the master kit (Big Al's Tetra Test Master Kit) they offer and then buying a single nitrate kit from them or another company.  After buying the kit, you need to finish buying the rest of your equipment!  Big Al’s online store offers great prices on equipment, but they do not really sell aquariums.  What you need is an aquarium, a filter, heater(s), Light/Cover, and fish.  
     You must plan what fish you plan to put in your aquarium.  This highly depends on what size of aquarium you have, what fish you plan to put together, and how much you plan on spending.  Shortly, I plan on posting an article with common fish used in community tanks, but as for now please check out aquariumadvice.com and check out the posts there about what fish to put into tanks.
     After determining what fish you plan to put in your tank, you must decide how you are going to cycle your tank.  There are two methods of cycling a tank, either fishless or with fish.  I have never actually done a fishless cycle, but I know for a fact it works.  I have always taken a small amount of gravel from one of my established aquariums and put it in my new tank to start to establish the bacteria and speed up the steps of the nitrogen cycle.  The method I have always used is called seeding, and if at all possible it is the method I recommend to you.  I will be going in more depth in a future article about fishless cycling.  
     Once you decide which method you plan to use for cycling, and have your aquarium set up, you must add you fish.  First, if not already, you must set up all your equipment and fill the tank up with water.  Hopefully, you have already decided what method of cycling you are going to use.  You must add fish slowly.  I would start out with about 10% of what you plan, and then add more fish weekly at slow increments, around 10% weekly and finally until you reach your planned amount.  During these weeks, and for the rest of the time you have an aquarium you must make regular water changes.  10% - 25% water changes must be done every week and during start up time this is very important.
     Hopefully, you have some better ideas on how to start up an aquarium.  I will be doing individual articles on every subtopic I covered within this article.  If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at pktester@gmail.com.